A Rose By Any Other Name
by tigerqwerty
Summary: "It's like he's in his own protected bubble, where nothing affects him. It's just me and him, alone, isolated, falling apart piece by piece." Alt. Doomsday ending, and goes on from there! Something extraordinary has happened to Rose... but where do she and the Doctor stand now? And how do you explain the impossible? (Ten/Rose TimeLady!Rose)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, all :) Welcome to the new collab story between myself (Qwerty616120) and tiger-girl-3000. We hope you enjoy- happy reading!  
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**Disclaimer: All rights to BBC**

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_"DOCTOR!" The scream leaves my throat raw, terror making my voice shrill. My palms are sweaty, making it hard to hold on the lever as the wind sucks greedily at my body, plastering my clothes to my skin and whipping my blonde hair in a million directions. _

_ A few feet away, the Doctor stands in the middle of the room. His hands are in his pockets, and not even his hair moves in the wind. It's like he's in his own protected bubble, where nothing affects him- not the wind or my fear of being sucked into the void. There should be daleks and cybermen flying past, but there aren't. It's just me and him, alone, isolated, falling apart piece by piece. It's horrible. He's just sitting there, watching me with a smirk that's so unlike his crazy, excited grin and why won't he help me and I can't stand it and- _

_ "Oh, Rose. If only you'd gone back to Pete's world, like a good girl. And after the Beast's warning! Really, one would think you'd have been more careful." _

_ The words hit me like a ton of bricks, and in a moment of pain and shock and heartbreak my grip loosens. That moment is all the void needs to win its battle. In a blur of white I'm airborne, hurtling toward the void. I feel like I'm in a free fall drop on a roller coaster, my stomach in my throat and a scream lost in the wind. My heart's racing out of control and all I can see is that smirk, that horrible, awful smirk- _

_ And I know that this wall won't be what kills me, not really. Losing him, after all I'd been through, after how hard I'd fought- that will be what kills me. _

_ The wall approaches fast. I'm only three feet away, then two. And then- _

"DOCTOR!" I sat bolt upright, my chest heaving and sweaty sheets tangled around my legs. It took me a moment to realize that it had all just been a nightmare. Again.

Around me, the TARDIS hummed in motherly sympathy.

"Thanks, girl," I muttered, detangling myself and clambering unsteadily to my feet. "I'm okay." I wasn't, not really, but I would be, and that was all that mattered. Sort of.

On my bedside table, little red numbers told me the time was 1:00 AM. Too early to go find the Doctor and distract myself with a good adrenaline-pumped adventure, then. Time is relevant in the TARDIS, of course, but the Doctor would notice if I appeared sooner than my custom eight hours. I still wasn't used to sleeping less.

So, instead of finding said Time Lord, I went to my bathroom to splash some cold water on my face and (hopefully) calm down my still racing heart. 'Heart_s_', I thought pointedly. Flipping on the light switch in my bathroom, I stumbled across the room, the sudden light blinding me and the tile cold against the bottoms of my feet.

I managed to find the sink and turned the water as cold as it could go, shakily splashing the water across my pale face. Water went everywhere, hitting my face and getting on the counter top, too. The water pooled and dripped steadily off the lip of the counter with a pattering _drip-drip-drip_, while I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

The girl in the mirror was both familiar and a stranger. She had my face, my eyes, my jaw, and my nose. The hair was the right length; the eyebrows were shaped the same. And yet she couldn't be me. Surely I didn't have such a pale face, or such bloodshot eyes. And I wasn't a ginger.

Well. I didn't use to be. I used to be a bottle blonde. 'Course, I also used to be human. Not anymore, though. Not since Canary Warf.

I should probably backtrack a bit, and explain what happened properly.

My parents and Mickey had gone to Pete's world. I had come back, just like in my nightmare. I did end up hanging for my life by a lever, sweaty hands slipping on slick metal as our enemies hurtled past us. But…

… the Doctor hadn't been heartless. He'd been distraught, yelling for me to hang on as he clung to his clamp, the wind whipping his coat into the air behind him. I had fallen- funny thing is, when I hit the wall in my dream I always woke up. Guess it's that whole 'can't die in your dreams' thing, 'coz in real life I did die. I fell, and the void closed a split second before I got there, so I hit that white wall hard.

More importantly, I hit my _head_ against that white wall hard. And there are some blows to the head that you just can't survive. So, yeah. I died. It hurt- a lot- but the pain didn't actually come from my injury. I found out later it came from my body, every cell regrouping, splitting apart and threading back together.

I died, and then I regenerated. Not much changed, thankfully, except my hair color. Regardless to say, I was weak and confused and the Doctor was… well, stunned. Neither of us had seen that coming. Naturally, the first thing he'd said had been:

"Oh, that's not fair! Ginger on your first go!"

Figures, huh? I don't remember much after that; I'd passed out, not from shock, but exhaustion. Dying and coming back takes a lot outta you. The Doctor took me back to the TARDIS and had barely spoken to me directly since. He'd been acting so odd, it was starting to scare me. One second, I'd find him looking at me like he was just glad I was there. The next, he was talking to himself under his breath, sending me confused, hurt looks like I'd done something wrong.

I don't think he knew what to make of new me, either. Looking in the mirror, I could see why. So similar, but so different. I remembered all too well how I'd felt when he'd regenerated at the Game Station, so I gave him his space. I didn't tell him about my new double heartbeat or low body temperature (although I suspected he already knew). My nightmares remained a secret that only I and the TARDIS knew, and so far I'd been lucky enough that he hadn't heard me scream. Most of all, I didn't tell him how scared I was. It's a terrifying thing to have your body turn on you and change while you remain ignorant to what's going on. I was worried sick. Glad to be alive, but what would the cost be?

In the mirror, my reflection offered no suggestions. Sighing, I turned away from the glass, leaning against the counter and ignoring the water that soaked the back of my shirt. The Doctor would figure out what had happened. He had to.

Then I could only pray that whatever had happened, he'd accept the new me. I hadn't come this far to lose him now.

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**-tiger-girl-3000 and Qwerty616120**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy :) **

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After a few hours, I finally decided that the appropriate amount of time had passed, and left my room with the intention of finding the Doctor. Apparently, he was in the med-bay, because neither the Doctor nor the room were anywhere to be found. Eventually, I was guided to the library, so I decided to read a book until the Time Lord made an appearance. After a couple of hours, I was so lost in the book, that I didn't notice the Doctor was in the room until he cleared his throat. It startled me, and I nearly jumped out of my seat at the sudden sound. Deciding not to wait anymore before confronting him, I stood up and walked over to him.

"You've been avoiding me for weeks, Doctor," I said, standing toe-to-toe with him. "Explain." My voice sounded confident, luckily, because I sure wasn't feeling very confident. In fact, I felt downright terrified. I had no idea what he could say- what if he wanted to drop me off at home? The thought made me feel sick, and I made a conscience effort to focus on the startled looking Time Lord before me.

"Um- well… I mean…" He broke off, running one hand through his hair the way he did when he was nervous and looking everywhere except at me.

"Doctor," I added, a bit softer this time. "Just tell me what's goin' on, yeah?"

"I think maybe I should show you instead," he said finally, still looking determinedly at the ceiling instead of at me.

"Show me what?"

"I was in the med-bay," the Doctor said, moving for the library door. Almost purely out of habit, I followed him, walking in step with him down the hallway toward the infirmary. "Remember the blood sample I took, a while back? Well, I was studying it, running scans, and what not, and-"

"You found something?" I interrupted, my stomach doing summersaults even as I tried to remain calm. On one hand, I'd finally know what was going on. On the other… what if whatever he'd found was bad? It'd certainly explain why he'd been avoiding me and wouldn't look me in the eye. I felt sick with apprehension, wishing he'd tell me s_omething. _Just a simple 'good news' or 'bad news' heads up would be sufficient at this point.

"Yeah," he replied, pushing the med-bay door open with one hand and gesturing for me to enter. He followed after me, letting the white door swing shut with a soft _whoosh_. He motioned for me to take a seat on the examination table in the middle of the room while he grabbed a futuristic-looking tablet with long rows of tables and graphs on them.

"Here," the Doctor said, handing me the tablet and looking at it exceptionally, like it would magically explain everything. Well, maybe it did to him. To me, it looked like nonsense. I'm not being petty or scornful, I mean it literally looked like nonsense to me- just random circles and numbers scattered across long double-helix shaped DNA models and complex graphs. Now, I'm no A-level scholar, but I'm pretty sure it was beyond any average human's skill to decipher something like that.

"Now do you see?" the Doctor prompted, as if he'd explained it all.

"Not really," I admitted, tilting the screen up and down as if that would help. "Actually, not at all. What on earth am I looking at?"

"Ah. Right," the Doctor muttered after a pause. "I always forget that you're from the 21st Century, not the 22nd."

"Okay," I sighed. Just like him to forget something like that. "Then can you _please _explain?" I tried not to sound exasperated, but I probably failed. What can I say? Looking at all these complicated digits wasn't helping my nerves.

"Hm? Oh, right!" And the Doctor was off, full lecture mode activated. "So, this here is your DNA- yeah, that there- before Canary Warf. This-"

"Wait a mo," I interrupted, holding up one hand. "I remember you getting a blood sample after Canary Warf, but where'd you get a DNA sample from before?"

"Your hairbrush," the Doctor said simply, like it should be obvious.

"Right. 'Course. Sorry, go on."

"Anyway, that's your DNA pre-Canary Warf. The image under it is post-Canary Warf. If you notice, the pre-DNA has all the normal human bases _except _for a small mutation in every other cytosine base- that's why some of them are gold. It was such a small amount, it went dormant… think of a bear hibernating for winter."

"You're comparing me to a bear?" I asked, biting my lip so I wouldn't crack a smile. As expected, the Doctor looked completely confused.

"Your DNA, yes. Why? What's wrong with bears?" He asked, baffled.

"Oh, nothing. Go on," I said, trying not to laugh at his expression.

"Wellll… okay then," he said, muttering something about 'human women' under his breath. "Like I was saying, the mutation was dormant. Harmless, actually, which is a miracle considering the mutation is the mark of residual time vortex."

"Wait, _what?_" I cried eyes wide. "You said that was deadly! Oh my God, am I gonna die?!"

"No," he said firmly, meeting my eyes for the first time since I'd run into him. "I'm not gonna let that happen." For a brief moment, things felt normal again. Then the moment was over, and he looked away.

"Anyway, I removed the vortex at the Game Station."

"When you regenerated," I said softly, watching the Time Lord shift uncomfortably.

"Yep," he said, popping the 'p'. "That's the time! Like I was saying, at the Game Station I took the Time Vortex out of you, but I must have missed a spot. Over the past year, it must have been changing your DNA. It took something that would have been fatal to bring it out completely- or, to use our previous example- to wake the bear up."

"Okay," I said slowly, absorbing it all in. It didn't sound deadly or harmful. "But changing me? How much? Am I still human?" My mind flew to my double heart beats, and I had a feeling I already knew the answer, but I asked anyway. I had to know for sure.

"No, Rose," the Doctor said softly, taking the tablet from me. "I don't think you've been fully human for a while, let alone now. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" I echoed, surprised. "Why are you sorry? You said it wasn't deadly, right?"

"Not deadly," the Time Lord confirmed with a subtle nod. "It was such a small amount at first, over at least a year, that your body has adapted quite well. No, I wasn't talking about that."

"Then what _were _you talking about?"

"Making you an alien on your own planet," he admitted. "A husband, a family. You know, a normal life. It'd- well, it'd be hard to have all that now."

"Maybe I don't want that," I retorted.

"You don't want a home?"

"This _is _my home," I argued gently. "And where would I go even if it wasn't? My family is gone, and so is Mickey. I haven't talked to my old friends in close to three years now, and the authorities think I'm dead with everyone else."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, closing his eyes are running a hand over his face, suddenly looking exhausted. "That's all my fault. You wouldn't have lost them if you hadn't been traveling with me."

"My mum wouldn't have gotten my dad back if I hadn't been with you," I pointed out. "And Mickey wouldn't have his gran. I'd still be a shop girl. I miss them, Doctor, sure. But I don't regret a thing."

"Not even-"

"Not even becoming an 'alien', as you so eloquently put it," I finished. "Speaking of which, your discovery answers one question, but not the other. Why have you been avoiding me?" I asked him, the hurt evident in my voice.

"I just have one question for you, Rose. Did you know that this was going on inside you?" I finally looked at him, only to find him already looking at me.

Oh. _Oh. _That explained a lot. He thought- he'd assumed-

"No," I told him honestly. "I didn't." He visibly relaxed, and stood up, turning around.

"Good," he said, more to himself than to me. Then, louder: "I'm going to have a cup of tea, and then we can go somewhere. You should probably change, though. It's going to be warm, where we're going." I nodded, and got up to go to my room.

I started walking down the hallways, trusting the TARDIS to guide me to where I needed to go. After a few minutes, I realized that the TARDIS didn't want me to find my room, and she kept putting the same room in front of me. She obviously wanted me to go inside, so I finally approached the door, taking time to study it before actually opening it.

It was painted black, and had circular, golden writing on it that I recognized as Gallifreyan from the many sticky notes around the monitor. Opening the door cautiously, I stepped inside. Looking around the room, I noticed a bed in the middle of the room, backed up to the wall across from the door. It was much larger than a king size bed, and I wondered who had slept there. There were two dressers, and, despite the wardrobe that was somewhere in the TARDIS, there was even a closet. Walking in further, I noticed something on the nightstand. Picking it up, I realized that it was the picture of me and my mum that was on my nightstand this morning when I woke up.

It had been taken on the Christmas that the Doctor had regenerated. Putting it down, I looked around, and, noticing nothing else out of the ordinary, decided to look into one of the dressers. Picking the one that was closer to the nightstand the picture was on, I opened the middle drawer and saw some of my t-shirts.

I pulled one out and decided to just change in there. Asking the TARDIS to keep the door closed, I changed in the middle of the room, and just as I was about to dig around for a pair of shorts, I saw something on the bed. Taking a step closer, I saw that it was a pair of shorts with a pair of trainers resting on top. "Well, if that's what you want me to wear," I said to the ceiling. I changed into what was there, and left to find the console room.

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**Yay! No more avoiding! BTW if anyone is reading my (tiger-girl-3000's) story 'Lucky Stars' then you will recognize one of the scenes, specifically the last one.  
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